Writing for Global Business Audiences: An Introduction

The resources in the following sections provide the reader with some insights into writing for global business audiences. They focus specifically on Indian, North American, and Chinese business context. It should be noted that these are merely descriptive observations of how business English occurs in each of these contexts; it should not be treated as a set of concrete proscriptions. Each business inside of each of these countries will most likely have their own unique attitudes and expectations regarding the use of written business English.

Again, these resources should not be viewed as a contrastive list of the differences between business English in North America, China, and India. The notion of contrastive rhetoric (see Kaplan, 1966) is a problematic one which has been criticized as being over simplistic and over essentializing (Connor, 2011). Rather, these should be seen as resources which highlight the uniqueness of business English as an intercultural rhetorical tool (Connor, 2011).